Times of India: New Delhi: Wednesday,
November 02, 2016.
School
associations have written to the Central Board of Secondary Education in
protest against its mandatory disclosure order. They have asked what authority
does CBSE, which is only an examination body, have to seek information.
The problem
is not so much with furnishing data on staff, admissions and infrastructure,
but with making it public. School authorities argue that such disclosures including
salary structures and work conditions will violate the privacy of teachers and
may invite litigation.
"Schools
across the country are upset about this. People in Kerala, Rajasthan and Uttar
Pradesh are getting in touch with me," said S K Bhattacharya of the Action
Committee for Unaided Recognised Private Schools, an umbrella organisation for
private school associations in Delhi. "We are not recognised by CBSE but
the state government. Why open another front? We aren't even covered by the RTI
Act," he added.
Principal of
Springdales School, Pusa Road and former chairperson of National Progressive
Schools Confrence, Ameeta Mulla Wattal, agreed with Bhattacharya. "A huge
amount of information is already with Directorate of Education. We submit such
details to the DoE by March every year and, if they are not convinced, they are
free to check the schools and take punitive action."
CBSE also
requires schools to make the information public. "Teachers may not want
their salaries and allowances revealed," said another. The main intention
behind the "mandatory disclosure," as the circular suggests, is to
ensure that a school's expenditure on "facilities" are aligned with
the fees it is collecting from students. Hence, the demand for even minute details
such as Wi-Fi connection and the number of training sessions attended by
teachers.
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